You never know what to expect with EA.
The Edmonton Oilers will defeat the Dallas Stars in Game 1 of the Western Conference Final.
NHL 25 had a very interesting simulation to Wednesday’s night game as both squads combined for 10 power plays. The Oilers had six opportunities on the man advantage, while the Stars had four.
In the end, it was the Canadian squad that made the most of their opportunities with a resounding 5-1 win.
Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl, Adam Henrique, Evan Bouchard, and Jake Walman scored for the Oilers. Mikko Rantanen scored the lone goal for Dallas. Stuart Skinner stopped 37 of 38 shots and Jake Oettinger made 42 saves.
First Period
The Oilers came out strong and quick from the get-go. McDavid rang a shot from the left circle off the post in the opening few minutes. The hero from Game 5 of the Western Conference Second Round series between Vegas and Edmonton, Kasperi Kapanen also had an early impact. His snap shot from the front of the net was gloved by Oettinger.
McDavid made up for it as he would score to give Edmonton a 1-0 lead on the very next play. After winning the draw in enemy territory, Brett Kulak fed McDavid the puck and he whipped around a wrister to beat Oettinger blocker side.
Dallas had an excellent chance to score with less than six minutes to go in the first, but some bad luck prevented them from making it happen. Thomas Harley, the hero from Game 6 between Winnipeg and Dallas, teed up a howitzer from the point. Tyler Seguin redirected it in front of the net, but he deflected it into Skinner’s glove. Just imagine if he could have just angled it just a little more towards the net.
The penalty fest officially kicked off late in the period, but at the end of, Edmonton held a 1-0 lead.
Second Period
Bouchard made it a 2-0 game when he scored on the power play after he was fed a no-look pass from Ryan Nugent-Hopkins. He gathered the puck and still managed to get off a sweet wrist shot as a defender was closing in on him. On the very next play, Draisaitl scored to make it 4-0 after pouncing on a loose puck in front of the net after Zach Hyman was initially turned away by Oettinger.
Third Period
With 1:41 left in the game, the Stars finally got on the board when Granlund fed Mikko Rantanen in the slot for a backhand goal on the power play.
Dallas pulled Oettinger with less than a minute to go, but Henrique punched in the empty-net goal to close the show.
Edmonton takes the opening game of the Western Conference Final 5-1.
Takeaways
We literally went from barely having any penalties in the Florida-Carolina sim to having a Thanksgiving dinner worth of infractions.
Don’t see that happening, but Edmonton taking the first game isn’t out of the equation. Both teams are riding incredible hot streaks right now and it’s going to be one heck of a series.